Agd future Focus of Family Law Services Final Report Jan 2016

2.2Description of FLS

2.2.1Service types

FLS constitute one of six streams of the DSS Families and Children Activity group, which is part of the suite of services under Families and Communities within DSS. The other five streams under Families and Children (Family and Relationship Services, Communities for Children Facilitating Partner, Children and Parenting, Young People and Adult Specialist Support) are out of scope for this engagement.

Within FLS, FRCs are established as a ‘front door’ to the system. A number of clients will also enter the system through the Family Relationship Advice Line and Family Relationships Online webpage. Despite this, the program operates under a ‘no wrong door’ approach, with all services required to refer clients on to the most appropriate service if they deem that they cannot meet their needs. In addition, the program may receive referrals from other socio-legal services, and refer their own clients to other services. These relationships are outlined in Figure .

The suite of Family Law Services covers face-to-face, digital and telephonic service provision. Some services have overlapping service provision, such as within FRCs, Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) and Post Separation Cooperative Parenting (PSCP) / Parenting Orders Program (POP), all of which use mediation. FRCs, established as a core component of the 2006 reform package, secure the largest proportion of funding within the family law services. FRCs received 49 per cent of the total funding package for 201415 to 201819. Further information on the proportion of funding received by each service can be found in section 3.1.2. In 2013-14, services were provided to approximately 95,000 registered clients, approximately 100,000 unregistered clients and additional advice line users.

Figure : Service types and referral pathways

Source: Data and information provided by AGD and DSS

Clients who come into contact with FLS will typically require more than one session to meet their needs. A group of sessions is referred to as an “activity”, as pictured diagrammatically in Figure . The number of sessions per activity provides some indication as to the intensity of each of the services, with this number of sessions provided in Table .

Table also summarises the eight service types provided under the FLS umbrella, and a high level indication of the number of outlets, clients and average intensity of service provision.

Table : Description of the Family Law Services

Family Law Services	Service Description (Objectives and Activities)	No. of outlets (2014-15)	No. of clients 2014^25	Average number of sessions per activity
Family Relationship Centres	Key platform of information, advice and referrals about family relationships at all stages. FRCs assist separating parents to focus on their children’s needs and to agree on workable parenting relationships outside the court system. A key activity is family dispute resolution, supplemented with referrals to other relevant services.	65	43,848 (registered) 36,300 (unregistered)	3.6
Post Separation Co-operative Parenting / Parenting Order Program	Services to families in regional areas designed to shift the focus from the conflict between parents to the needs of the children in relation to parenting issues. Integral to the programs are short, educational workshops designed to evoke strong emotional reactions in parents and to shift to a greater awareness of children’s needs. Designed to assist families separate who are in high conflict situations to consider the best needs of children involved. Services use a variety of child-focused and child-inclusive interventions and mediation processes that work with all members of the family.	48	POP – 4,473 (registered) 8,400 (unregistered) PSCP – 4,529 (registered) 1,700 (unregistered)	POP – 3.8, PSCP – 2.4
Family Law Counselling	Provides support for couples and families to manage relationship issues. Support may include the provision of information, counselling and / or mediation.	40	6,143 (registered) 2,400 (unregistered)	N/A
Family Relationships Advice Line	Family Dispute Resolution and mediation carried out via telephone, usually for rural and remote clients, or clients unable to attend services at outlets for a variety of reasons.	1	2,376 (registered) 820 (unregistered)	1.6
Children’s Contact Services	Provides a service and space to enable parents to develop safe relationships with children. This includes providing a safe, neutral venue for the transfer of children and providing supervised contact where there is actual or perceived risk to the child.	65	13,047 (registered) 36,000 (unregistered)	17.4
Supporting Children after Separation	Aims to support the wellbeing of children under the age of 18 from separated or separating families, who are experiencing issues with difficult family relationships. The program assists children to address relationship issues that arise from separation, and provides opportunities for them to participate in decisions about these issues.	18	5,266 (registered) 6,300 (unregistered)	5.2
Family Dispute Resolution (including Regional FDR)	Provides FDR outside the FRC platform, on issues such as parenting, finance and property. Regional FDR (RFDR) is provided to meet the particular needs of the rural community.	60	FDR – 10,531 (registered) 6,386 (unregistered) RFDR – 4,632 (registered) 3,268 (unregistered)	FDR – 2.6, RFDR – 3.1
Family Relationships Online	Provides information about family relationships and separation via the website www.familyrelationships.gov.au. The website assists families to find out about the range of services available to help manage relationship issues.	N/A	Not supplied	N/A

Source: Data supplied to KPMG by DSS, Allen Consulting Group – Research on Family Support Program family law services

2.2.2Providers of FLS

Across Australia, FLS are administered by 66 providers for the five year funding period from 201415 to 201819. Table below outlines the distribution of providers and outlets nationwide.

Table : Providers and outlets by state

State	Number of Providers	Number of Outlets
NSW	16	62
VIC	18	48
QLD	12	53
WA	4	21
SA	7	21
TAS	3	9
ACT	3	10
NT	3	8

Source: Data provided by DSS, cut by ‘Activity state’ and ‘Activity Provider Name’.

Not all service providers are funded to deliver the full suite of FLS services. The table below provides an overview of the number of providers across Australia which are funded to deliver FLS services.

Table : FLS providers by service type

Service type	Number of providers
Family Law Counselling	38
Children's Contact Services	37
Family Dispute Resolution	34
Family Relationship Centres	34
Parenting Orders Program / Post Separation Cooperative Parenting	30
Regional Family Dispute Resolution	25
Supporting Children after Separation	12
Family Relationship Advice Line	1
Total providers delivering services	66*

Source: KPMG and June 2014 DSS Provider Payment System data

* Note: The total number of service providers (n=66) does not equate to the sum of providers funded for each service type in the above table, as one provider organisation may deliver/receive funding for multiple service types.

Providers also vary in size, with some smaller providers funded for the delivery of one service type in one location, where larger providers may be funded in various locations across Australia to deliver a varied suite of resources. Many providers of FLS are contracted to deliver other state and federally funded socio-legal services. These services may complement the provision of FLS, with some overlap for certain services. Figure below provides a high level overview of the location of service outlets across Australia.

Figure : Family Law Service Outlet Locations by Service Type

Source: KPMG and June 2014 DSS Provider Payment System data